questions about outfitter?

[backcountry82]

has anyone ever heard of or hunted with wildhoghunt.com in texas before?? i bought a hunt of theirs off ebay...sounded good but just have some questions...i am heading down there the first weekend of april 2005..any input would be appreciated thanx and good hunting

 

[Speckmisser]

Good luck on that hunt. I can't tell you anything about them, but maybe some of our TX guys can pipe up.

I'm sure you probably did all this, so the following is just a tip for other folks reading this thread. ALWAYS do your research, such as calling the operation and checking references BEFORE you part with your money. Booking a hunt, and then asking around for feedback about the outfitter can be a little dicey... especially if you start hearing a lot of negatives. Once you've spent the money, especially on something like eBay, you're usually out of luck if you change your mind.

Lots of hogs in TX, so odds are you'll have a good hunt.

 

[rbridges00]

I've been there on an "ebay hunt" and found Paul Candelaria to be just short of fraudulent. I’m hoping for your sake, my experience was just a fluke. You should be alright on a hog hunt however, since Paul will come in with a cattle trailer full of them and release just prior to your arrival.

In my opinion, don’t pay extra to stay on the ranch. Go ahead and book a motel in a nearby town and just drive to the ranch. Be careful, he might try to sneak a trophy fee in on you at the last minute.

 

[Tree Doc]

Just curious but what would compell you to buy a guided hunt on ebaY when you can just make a phone call and make the arrangement with some options. Did you have to pay for the whole hunt after "winning" it on ebaY or was their a deposit arrangement that gives you a safety net?

Can't really imagine any reputable and successful guide worth his salt needing to sell on ebaY or anywhere for that matter other than word of mouth from happy clients.

Best of luck.

 

[larrysogla]

One month before we went to Texas last Oct. 2004, we were encouraged by what we saw on E-bay regarding "Wildhoghunt.com" auction on hog hunts. Knowing that nobody is in business to give away their livelihood for free, I called the owner(Paul) & we(5 of us) offered to pay the regular price(weekend hunt) except we wanted a weekday hunt. He readily agreed & during the 3 week interim period after we mailed our check & the starting date of the hunt, Paul was very prompt in answering all of our subsequent inquiries. In short order we finished the hunt with more than plenty of shot opportunities at 150+ hogs. We killed 6 of the 150 lb.+ hogs but took home 5 because one of the hogs was in poor condition from a previous gunshot wound from a previous hunting group. Paul offered us one more shot opportunity to compensate for the poor condition hog, but unfortunately we tried but we were not succesful in finding a replacement hog. I would characterize it as "we got what we paid for & expected" after having informed ourselves from our queries beforehand of just what to expect from the service. We did not go into the hunt blindly expecting something other than what was agreed upon based from our numerous e-mails & phone calls asking for clarification & for more information & additional details of the hunt. Our group is enthusiastically booked for a repeat hunt this March 2005 & we are planning for a repeat hunt again in Oct. 2005. Paul has a one way wild animal gate with bait that allows wild boar to come into the 1 square kilometer high fenced area but does not allow the game to get out. Paul also likes to maintain around 150 hogs inside that high fenced area that is why every once in a while he buys from the hog trappers from the surrounding ranches the large boars(200 to 300 lbs.) to support the desired population. The 1 sq. kilometer high fenced area is inside a 2,000 acre hunting ranch in which Paul has a hunting lease & which is part of the hunt package. There are some really big wild boars in this 2,000 acre hunt parcel except they are harder to locate even at the forested creek bottoms because at that time the oak trees were dropping a lot of acorns & the acorn fed hogs were not interested in the corn feeders/hunting blind set up. We did hunt this 2,000 acre parcel but did not find hogs except lots of tracks & plenty of big ones at that in the treed creek bottoms. All in all, you have to ask a lot good questions & then ASK SOME MORE QUESTIONS BEFORE BOOKING THE HUNT & EVEN BEFORE THE HUNT ITSELF. This way there are no false hopes, dashed expectations & misunderstanding/misinterpretation. 'Nuff said. larrysogla.